Back in college, Larry Carson played drums in a friend’s band and fell in love with the lead singer, Geoffrey Mason. But all that’s in the past. Larry’s now thirty-five, divorced, and father to a precocious thirteen-year-old daughter. One day, when Larry picks Crystal up from school, a song comes on the radio by a new rockstar climbing the charts. Larry recognizes Geoff’s voice immediately, though Crystal calls him Geo and claims he’s the hottest new singer on the scene. Just hearing him brings back a flood of memories, reopening wounds Larry thought long healed. The more he listens to Geo’s music, the more Larry falls in love with his former boyfriend all over again. Partly to prove to his daughter that he used to know Geo back in the day, and partly to reconnect with his old friend, Larry buys tickets to an upcoming concert and manages to score backstage passes. But there was a reason Larry and Geoff lost touch -- and stayed out of touch for so long. Will Geo even want to see Larry again after all this time? Or will the magic of their old familiar song bring about a harmonious duet?

Old Familiar Song

That decided it. Balling up the FedEx sticker, Larry shoved it in his pocket and started around the side of the house. I need that CD now.


As he neared the front porch, he heard the sound of Geo’s current hit song “Love You Tonight” blaring from the tinny speakers of someone’s iPhone. Only one of the neighbor’s daughters was on her phone; the other had hers turned up loud enough to blast the song. They were a few years older than Crys, with long dark hair worn straight down their backs and long legs folded under them where they sat on the porch swing.


Larry had been introduced to them once when he first moved into the basement apartment and knew their names, Kylie and Morgan, though which was which, he wasn’t sure. They weren’t twins, one was fourteen months older than the other, and both were in high school, but they seemed interchangeable and—he hated to admit it—completely forgettable to him.


Chapter 27